American Go E-Journal

Registration for the sixth year of the Pandanet AGA City League is upon us. If you are interested please read the rules page and send an email to steve.colburn@usgo.org. Registration will close on November 30th.

This 19th-century Japanese firefighting jacket is in the collection at the Seattle Art Museum. “The jacket tells a story from the life of Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948–1021), a warrior-hero,” according to a recent post on the museum’s blog. “The story is as follows: Yorimitsu was sick, and was resting in bed. He was visited by a priest—but the priest was actually a giant spider (tsuchigumo) in disguise! Yorimitsu, being very clever, sees through the disguise, and attacks the spider with his sword, wounding him. Yorimitsu’s four attendants, called the Four Heavenly Kings, were playing a game of go while guarding him, and leapt up to track the spider back to his den.

This narrative was popular in theatrical productions, and there was a song in Noh theatre specifically about tsuchigumo, the intimidating earth spider. The story appears frequently in woodblock prints in the nineteenth century as well. The jacket shows the moment when the go game was abandoned, with tsuchigumo retreating back to his web. So great was the hurried effort to find the spider that the attendants left behind their personal effects, scattering go pieces in their haste.”

Eighteen players, ranging in strength from 8 dan to 20 kyu, participated in Syracuse Go Club’s Fall Self-Pair Tournament this past Saturday,November 4. “Every player left as a winner at the end of the day,” says organizer Richard Moseson, “getting to select a new go book from Slate and Shell to take home.” The date for Syracuse Go Club’s annual four-round Salt City Tournament has already been set for Saturday, March 24.

“We were expecting DeepMind to make some sort of an announcement (about a new version of AlphaGo),” says Michael Redmond 9p, “But 80 games was a big present.” (Self-taught AlphaGo Zero bests all previous versions in record time) Redmond discusses AlphaGo Zero with the E-Journal’s Chris Garlock in a brief video announcing the launch of a new series of game commentaries. DeepMind released four sets of games for the self-taught AI, including training games, games against the Fan Hui version, the Lee Sedol version and the Master version, which defeated 60 top human opponents earlier this year. “I’m going to be looking at the games where Master plays Zero, mainly because Master is such a popular version of AlphaGo,” Redmond says. Master’s tactics, including big shimaris and emphasizing the center “people wanted to play, but were afraid because that way of playing is weak in territory. Master showed us some successful ways…and is still having an effect on how professionals play. So it’s going to be really interesting to see Master playing against a stronger version of AlphaGo.”

“In this game we’re going to see a double kakari against a star point, a first for this series of games,” says Michael Redmond 9p in his game commentary on Game 14. “In the Master vs. human series back in January, Master would play away when the opponent played a kakari against a star point, sometimes. Now we’ll get to see how Master plays this with White, and it has a special move. Its a new joseki that actually make s some sense, so it’s going to be interesting.”

The 2017 Space Coast Go Tournament was held on October 14 in the Community Resource Center in Rockledge, Florida. Rockledge is on the mainland near the Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach. Last year Hurricane Matthew delayed the games; this year Hurricane Irma blew through earlier. Rockledge suffered a large amount of mostly minor damage.

The three round tournament drew 16 players including folks from Orlando, Sarasota, Port Orange, and the Palm Beaches. A wide range of ranks split nicely into three groups: Dans, 1 to 8 kyu, and 8 to 28 kyu.

Top honors went to Jonathan Fisher, 4D, who won all three of his games. Aaron Otero was the winner of the upper kyu division, also with three wins. Joel Kickbusch, 10k, won two out of three to finish first in the lower kyu division. He also won the raffle for a new Go set generously donated by Yellow Mountain Imports along with other prizes. The first three players in each division chose books from Slate and Shell as their prizes. Bart Lipofsky was the tournament director.- report/photos by Bart Lipofsky

Starting this month, students and university clubs are now eligible for a major student discount on screening packs of “The Surrounding Game“ documentary.

“We want to make it easy and affordable for campus groups to host screenings” says director Will Lockhart. “I think young people will enjoy the film more than anyone, and screening the film is an excellent way to interest new students in Go and Go clubs.” The screening pack includes several copies of the film, posters and flyers, and a custom 9×9 set, “perfect for teaching newcomers after the show,” notes Lockhart.

If you’d like to organize a screening of the film on your campus, check out the screening pack here, or contact the team for more information.

Iyama defends Meijin, achieves second Grand Slam: The fifth game in the 42nd Meijin title match was held at the Atami Sekitei inn (below left), one of the traditional venues for the Meijin, in Atami City in Shizuoka Prefecture on October 16 and 17. After winning the first game in the match, the defending champion, Takao Shinji Meijin, had lost three in a row, so he faced his first kadoban. The game got off to a stormy start, with Takao, who had white, capturing a large group of Iyama Yuta’s. Actually Iyama (right) could have made a second eye, but he didn’t like the result, so instead he discarded the group and tried to squeeze on the outside as compensation. As usual, it was a fierce game, and the lead switched back and forth. In the end, Iyama set up a ko to kill the white group surrounding his “captured” group, and Takao had to resign when he ran out of ko threats.

Losing this title to Takao (left) last year cost Iyama his simultaneous grand slam, the first in Japanese go history. In the meantime, he defended his other six titles, so regaining the Meijin gave him his second grand slam, a first for. This is a first for go or shogi. Iyama maintained the first one for 197 days. Fans will be looking forward to his extending this. This is his 46th title, which leaves him in sixth place, one behind Kato Masao.

This success earned Iyama a report in the nightly news, which also revealed in passing that his tournament prize money now amounted to 1,000 million ten (about $9 million).

Iyama makes good start in Oza: Just three days after regaining his grand slam, Iyama was busy with maintenance, meeting the challenge of Ichiriki Ryo 7P for the 65th Oza title. The first game was played at the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on October 20. Iyama drew white. The game started with a fierce struggle for the initiative, and fighting continued to the end. Iyama was able to take an edge, leading Ichiriki to resign after 168 moves. The second game is scheduled for November 18.

Iyama extends lead in Tengen: The second game of the 43rd Tengen title match was played at the Hotel Emisia Sapporo in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, on October 27. Taking white, Iyama Yuta secured a resignation after 162 moves, making the game almost the same length as the Oza one reported above. Ichiriki Ryo (right) faces his first kadoban in the third game, scheduled for November 24. As least he has the better part of a month to consider how to righten his ship in his double challenge.

Yamashita makes Kisei playoff: The third game in the knock-out to decide the challenger in the 42nd Kisei tournament was played on October 27. Motoki Katsuya 8P had done well, moving up from bottom of the knock-out, as C League winner, past the B and C League winners, but his run came to a stop when he met Yamashita Keigo 9P, second-place-getter in the S League. Taking black, Yamashita won by resig. He will meet Ichiriki in the final, though the latter starts with a one-win advantage.

Fujisawa evens score: The second game of the 36th Women’s Honinbo title match was held at the Izanro Iwasaki inn in the town of Miasa in Tottori Prefecture (at right, with the Mitoku River flowing in front of it). Taking black, Fujisawa Rina (left), the defending champion, forced Xie Yimin, the challenger, to resign after 205 moves. This evened the score at 1-1. The third game will be played on November 4.

First round completed in 73rd Honinbo League: With the two results given below, the first round of the new league has now been completed. Of the four newcomers to the league, only Ida Atsushi has won a game. Besides the players below, Motoki Katsuya and Yamashita Keigo have won a game. The others to have lost a game are Kobayashi Satoru and Shibano Toramaru.(Oct. 19) Ko Iso 8P (W) beat Yo Seiki 7P by resig.(Oct. 26) Ida Atsushi 8P (W) beat Hane Naoki 9P by 3.5 points.